


A Spark

by Talyesin



Series: Aftermath on Finite Earths [13]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 17:09:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15441840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talyesin/pseuds/Talyesin





	A Spark

Earth S  
Sivana Island, South Pacific

 

Mary Batson Freeman lay in her bed and fought back tears. Her restraints were tight enough to restrict movements completely, without being so tight to cut off her circulation. The gag in her mouth was painful, but completely unnecessary – she would never risk the life of her unborn child – which, Sivana had mercilessly informed her, against her wishes, would be a son – by calling down the power of Shazam.

It had been well over a week, possibly as much as two weeks, since she'd been kidnapped by Sivana and his brutish manservant Ibac. The tears she was holding back were not from pain or fear but of frustration with her brother and her husband. What was taking them so long to find and rescue her? Didn't they know the baby was at risk? Any day now she could go into labour, prematurely, and then Sivana would have her baby and she would be dead.

She'd studied the small room she was being held captive in, memorized it, seeking any hint, any clue as to her whereabouts, but there were no windows and only one door – a thick metal door whose only handle was on the exterior. And even then, whenever she involuntarily received guests – usually Sivana himself, come to change the IV bag she was being fed through, though occasionally Ibac would arrive to change her all-too-embarrassing bedpan and once Sivana's son Junior had come by to gloat, leering at her lasciviously – they made sure to lock the door upon leaving once more. Even if she could somehow get free of her restraints, there really was no way out of her prison.

Oh, Freddy, Billy, where are you? she thought despairingly. I'd even settle for one of the Lieutenants Marvel to show up. They'd somehow manage to bungle me free.

The featureless grey door opened and one of the most beautiful women Mary had ever known stepped through. Beautia Sivana had somehow evaded the curse of Sivana's warped genetics and been granted a near impossible beauty. She and Mary had been friends in school, once, but the discovery of her true parentage had forced Beauty to side with the lifelong enemy of the Marvel Family.

Beauty smiled sadly at her former friend. "Hi Mary. May I come in?"

That was so like her, Mary thought, asking a prisoner permission to enter their cell. Not that Mary could respond with the gag in her mouth. Suddenly laughing at her own foolishness, Beauty went to Mary's side and began to remove the gag, then stopped. "You won't ... you know, will you?" She twiddled her fingers in the air, bringing her hand from shoulder height down to her waist, an approximation of mimed lightning. Mary shook her head no. Beauty smiled at her, rendering her stunningly beautiful face nearly heartwrenching to look at, and loosened Mary's gag.

"Beauty, please, you have to help me."

"Mary, you have to know I can't do that. I can't betray my... my family. Please don't ask me that."

Not for the first time, Mary wondered if it was possible to be too good. Beautia wasn't simple in the head - though no genius like her father, or Junior, or her younger half-sister Georgia who had been cursed with Sivana's repulsive features, Beauty had always excelled in school - but her devotion to her clearly evil and sinister family certainly called Mary's opinion of Beauty's sanity into question.

Mary sighed. "Please, Beauty, please... don't let them hurt my baby."

Beauty came over to the bed in which Mary was strapped, wringing her hands, glorious blue eyes pleading. "Mary, I can't promise that-"

"Don't give me that Beautia!" Mary snapped at her one-time friend. "This is my baby we're talking about! I don't know what sick scheme that insane maniac has for my child, but I swear-"

Mary stopped yelling and took a deep breath. Beauty was crying.

The tall blonde standing by the bed sobbed. "I'm sorry, Mary, I truly am. I do hate it when you're angry with me."

Maybe I don't need the wisdom of Minerva to get myself out of this, Mary suddenly thought. "Beauty, no, I'm the one who's sorry. I shouldn't have yelled."

Beauty even sniffled beautifully.

"There's some tissues on that table," Mary said, pointing with one restrained hand. Beauty turned and dabbed at her eyes and blew her nose.

"I'm just... very concerned for the life of my baby," Mary explained. "You understand that, don't you?"

"Of course, I do," Beauty said, hesitating before sitting on the ledge of Mary's bed. "May I...?" she asked, holding one hand over Mary's swollen belly. Mary nodded, smiling. Beauty rested her hand on Mary's belly, caressing the white roundness. She smiled at Mary, impossibly beautiful in her simple joy.

"Oh!" Mary exclaimed suddenly. "Move your hand to my right about six inches, quick!"

Beauty eagerly obeyed, and was rewarded with the sensation of Mary's unborn son pushing against her hand. She grinned at her former friend, tears of joy springing in her eyes to replace those which had so recently been shed in sadness. Mary grinned back.

"Mary... I really am happy for you and Freddy," Beauty said, withdrawing her hand reluctantly. "I had hoped to have children of my own one day..." She turned away sadly.

Mary knew that Sivana had already harvested his own daughters' ovaries in an insane scheme to breed a race of super-geniuses some six years previous. Ever since the Crisis, Sivana's plans and machinations had delved from simple madness to truly cruel insanity, which was part of the reason why Mary was nearly in a panic whenever she allowed herself to think about her predicament.

Beauty turned back, setting her jaw, determined not to allow herself to despair, fixing her face in a flawless mask of false happiness, one she'd long ago mastered. "If it's any comfort at all, Father doesn't have any plans for your son himself. He says your son is the key to some master plan of someone he's working with, and she will not allow any harm to possibly befall your son. Father's really very concerned about your son's well being. I think… I think he’s intimidated by her. Your son will be safe in Father’s care."

Trade the madman I know for a madwoman I don't? Not very reassuring, Mary thought. "That's something, I suppose."

Beauty smiled at Mary, taking her hand to comfort her. Then she lowered her eyelashes shyly, looking at Mary through the long luscious lashes, smiling at her former friend. "You remember the crush I had on Captain Marvel, all those years ago? And then on Freddy, for the longest time? Of course, I didn't know he was Freddy Freeman at the time."

Not until Mister Mind hypnotised us into revealing our secret identities on national television, Mary thought, rolling her eyes, but she giggled. "It was so hard for me not to tell you back then, that you had a crush on my twin brother, and on the poor crippled orphan newspaper boy..."

"Yes well," Beauty laughed, a silvery music to Mary's ears in her grim cell. Beauty's face grew serious. "I was so jealous when you married Freddy, you know."

"Beauty..."

Beauty stood and stepped toward Mary, reaching down to replace the gag. "It took me a long time to realize I wasn't really jealous of you, you know."

"Really?"

Beauty leaned in close to Mary's face, her light perfume a flowery sweet fragrance. Curls of blonde hair spilled off her shoulders, framing her face, enclosing the two women in a world that was just them, just for that brief moment, then Beauty's impossibly beautiful face passed to one side of Mary's. Mary thought Beauty was leaning in to kiss her on the cheek, but instead Beauty whispered, "I wasn't jealous of you. I was jealous of Freddy."

Stunned at her former friend's revelation, Mary had no means to resist what happened next - Beauty kissed her on the mouth. Instinctively Mary returned the kiss before she could stop herself or protest.

The grey metal door swung open with a clang on the bare concrete wall. Beauty pulled herself away from Mary, replacing the gag with one dexterous movement. 

At the open doorway, framed by the light of the hallway beyond, was Georgia Sivana, Beauty's genius half-sister.

"What do you think you're doing?" Georgia demanded, glaring through her thick glasses. Mary knew Georgia meant to look fierce, but she just looked cross-eyed.

"Just making sure her gag is on tight, sister dear," Beauty lied smoothly.

"If I tell Father you've been in here without permission, I shudder to think what he'll do with you, dear sister," Georgia threatened with a sneer. "Perhaps he'll loan you out to Black Adam again, would you like that?"

"If I were in here without permission, I'm sure he'd do exactly that," Beauty agreed brightly, walking toward the door.

"You'd probably enjoy that, too, wouldn't you, you tramp!" Georgia barked harshly, blocking her way.

Beauty looked down at her considerably less attractive sister, concerned and embarrassed. "Georgia... I know you didn't mean to call me that. And especially in front of an expectant mother. She doesn't need to witness our family's... dirty laundry."

"You simpleton! As if mere words could damage an unborn child and its..." she flapped her hands at Mary, searching for words, settling on "... gestation chamber?"

"I thought Father said that nothing should be said or done to further stress the 'gestation chamber'? That having been kidnapped and held captive was surely stress enough? And that if anything happened to the chamber, or especially to the child, there would be..." she blushed and paused, then continued, " 'hell' to pay."

Even from where she lay in her bed, Mary could hear Georgia's bucktoothed teeth grinding in frustration. No, Beauty was far from simple in the head.

Georgia muttered a wordless growl and shoved past her taller, gorgeous sister. Beauty turned and with a wide grin, winked at Mary, then shut the cell door behind her.

Mary thought that maybe, just maybe, she might have an ally.


End file.
